The Perils of Parking

By: Faith Parker

By Andrew Velasquez

On Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 East Stroudsburg University commuter students arrived on campus to find yet another obstacle in their way of finding a parking spot. Several signs were placed throughout the parking lot located behind the Science and Technology building informing students that the entire lot was no longer for student use; it would now be a faculty and staff parking area only.

Parking has been a growing issue for the commuter students of East Stroudsburg University for the past several years. There are a variety of techniques that students have been using in order to get a parking spot. Some students use the “early bird gets the worm approach.” Students arrive an hour or more early before their scheduled class time to find parking. Another form of this approach is scheduling classes and eight o’clock in the morning because much fewer cars are there at this time and spots are plentiful. This early arrival does not guarantee that the driver will find a place to park, but increases the odds of finding one.

One of the more awkward, but very common approaches used campus wide is the “stalking approach.” With this approach a driver waits for a fellow student to enter the parking lot that appears to be leaving, and creeps behind them until the stranger frees up a parking space. Other forms of this approach include rolling down the car window and offering a stranger a ride to their car. This is a guaranteed way to score a parking space and avoid being “out stalked” by another commuter.

Thirdly, many students use the “local business approach.” With this method of parking spot finding, students avoid the ESU campus all together. Cars of commuter students can be found scattered across the local business parking lots of Wal-Mart, CVS, and the Pocono Medical Center. This requires the student to leave earlier, mostly due to the ten minutes it may take to walk from these parking lots.

These three approaches may not be the most satisfying solutions, but in order to prevent students from being late to class and losing a valuable, expensive college education, these are the procedures many students will have to take until a more substantial parking solution is found.